OXFORD, Miss. – Lauded as “change agents,” Truman Scholars are undergraduate students who have the passion, intellect and leadership potential to improve the ways that government and other entities serve the public good.
The Truman Scholarship Foundation has recognized Chelsea Caveny, a University of Mississippi junior from Hattiesburg, as having just that sort of potential, naming her as the university’s 14th Truman Scholar. Caveny, a student in the UM Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College majoring in public policy leadership, gets $30,000 for graduate school.
Chancellor Dan Jones, flanked by several university administrators, interrupted Caveny’s English literature course Tuesday to personally inform her of the honor. Her classmates applauded as Caveny got the news.
“Chelsea doesn’t just volunteer one afternoon a week or over a weekend,” Jones explained. “Service is her life, and that’s why she was selected to receive the Truman Scholarship. I’m really proud of her.”
A Lott Leadership Scholar, finalist for National Youth Advocate of the Year and National Forensics League Academic All-American, Caveny was offered an internship with the Clinton Foundation in New York City last summer. Instead, she opted to work with the Sunflower County Freedom Project, where her understanding of education reform and community development expanded in a way that textbooks could not provide.
“Public education in the state of Mississippi is failing its students,” Caveny said. “These failing public school systems and the divide among races have resulted in failing communities. Without equity, communities cannot develop.”
“I want to lead a comprehensive approach through community organizing, public and private partnerships and innovative approaches that will improve public education in Mississippi while uniting and rebuilding communities.”
Caveney has volunteered to serve in several positions while at Ole Miss, including director of the Associated Student Body’s community service committee. She’s also volunteered with Hope for Africa, One Mississippi and Leap Frog, an afterschool tutoring program. And over a three-year period following Hurricane Katrina, she worked to help restore the Gulf Coast.
“Chelsea sets an example for all of us,” said Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, UM honors college dean. “She’s a participant not only in the classroom, but also out in the field. She is the essence of an honors college student who takes her commitment to the public sphere and makes her learning environment expand. She’s setting great goals for her peers, the university and the state.”
{youtube}gN6ptTgt3E8{/youtube}Daughter of Jay Ladner and Jennifer Caveny, she is slated to graduate from UM in May 2011. She plans to use the Truman Scholarship to earn joint master’s and law degrees through the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, then hopes to return to the Magnolia State to be part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps for two years.
“The nucleus of education reform is in the classroom,” she said. “The opportunity to teach and the time spent in the community are important, but I am just as excited about the relationships I will build with my students.”
As a Truman Scholar, Caveny hopes to participate in the 2011 Washington Summer Institute, where she’ll work for the U.S. Department of Education. Her goal there is to explore funding opportunities to help bridge educational disparities in rural America.
The Truman Scholarship was established by Congress in 1975 to honor the 33rd U.S. president. The mission of the Truman Scholarship Foundation is to find and recognize college juniors with exceptional leadership potential who are committed to careers in government, the nonprofit or advocacy sectors, education or elsewhere in the public service; and to provide them with financial support for graduate study, leadership training and fellowship with other students who are committed to making a difference through public service.
In 2004, the foundation named UM a Harry S. Truman Honor Institution in recognition of the university’s continued success in the program.
For more information about the Truman Scholarship, visit http://truman.gov/. For more information on the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, go to http://www.honors.olemiss.edu/.